Writing Contest - Real World Teen Issues

Welcome to StageofLife.com's free Writing Contest for High School Students. From this page you'll be able to enter the monthly teen writing contest and help inspire, educate or illuminate your peers (and older generations) with your experiences and thoughts.

March 2012 Writing Contest

Writing Contest Topic: Dedicate a Poem to Someone Who Matters

Details: In preparation for April’s National Poetry Writing Month, we are asking teens and college students to write a poem in dedication to someone who matters in their life. Whether it is a family member, friend, teacher, celebrity or kind stranger, write an original poem about what that person means to you.

*ONE POEM ENTRY PER PERSON!

Examples:

To My Motherby Robert Louis StevensonYou too, my mother, read my rhymes
For love of unforgotten times,
And you may chance to hear once more
The little feet along the floor.

The Best Friend by William Henry DaviesNow shall I walk
Or shall I ride?
"Ride", Pleasure said;
"Walk", Joy replied.

Now what shall I --
Stay home or roam?
"Roam", Pleasure said;
And Joy -- "stay home."

Which of ye two
Will kindest be?
Pleasure laughed sweet,
But Joy kissed me.

Poem Writing Tips*

Poem Writing Tips from Susan Wooldridge

Whether your a teacher or student, writing poetry can be difficult. Below you will find tips to writing poetry from Susan Wooldridge, author of poemcrazy: freeing your life with words. Susan shares with Stage of Life, her tips to writing poetry.

1.Write to discover and explore, not to “tell.”Let your poems examine, Who am I? Where do I come from? Or simply, what do I see out the window? Use colors and sounds.

2. Create a field of safety around yourself, so you’re writing freely, openly and honestly--not to please or impress others. Sometimes it’s fun to write in a sound-bubble of music, I choose instrumentals with no words. Visit a sheltered wild place. To finish my book Foolsgold I set up office on the edge of Chico creek. To write freely I had to forget the inhibiting world of humans! Forget publishing (for now.) Forget awards and comparisons. “Winning” and “losing’ can throw us off kilter in our work.

3. Be a journal-ist. Begin a journal and carry it with you. Jot notes on: who, what, where, when. Forget whether you’re writing a poem or prose, fiction or non-fiction All good writing helps us SEE.

4. Gather the right tools, especially the right notebooks. Find the size best for you, with paper you like to make marks on. Get a pen that inspires you. Collect color pens. I love fountain pens and fineliners. Transfer your words to a laptop later. Create a playing field. Be an otter. Carry Scotch Magic tape and scissors. Make your journal into a collage. Do this for fun.

5. Paint a picture with language. Find a painting or photo and put it into words. Create images and metaphors, they carry feeling. Metaphors compare one thing to another. “I feel like the pale cloud drifting off the edge of the photo.”
6. Play with language. Learn words from other languages. Find words from the native culture in your area. Maidu for water is momoli. Mugwort is munmunum. Silly is sukulilli. Notice the sounds of words. Gather them. Go for nouns and verbs or words that are both, “nerbs,” I sometimes call them. Trigger. Spin. Wolf. Flow.

7. We’re here to communicate. What do you want to convey? Jot down what you want to convey in your notebook. Then forget about it and it will rise up in your writing. 8. Persistence. Don’t quit. The water buffalo crosses the muddy river if he keeps only the slightest motion forward. If he stops completely, his hooves get stuck in the mud. And also, DO quit many things that take you away from what you most love to do.
9. GATHER. Ducks flock. Create a small writing group. The Sleepy Orange Trust group. The asteroid cats. The Live Poets Society. Meet in a café. Encourage each other. Don’t be too critical. Tell each other what you like most in each other’s work. Point out strong images (word pictures.) Give each other prompts. But also…

10. BE ALONE.You’ll see better. Write in bed, in the bath, on the road, walk and wander alone and write. Always have your notebook with you.
11. Listen and take notes. Words will be given to you. Jot down conversations you hear. Notice signs and words around you. Bayliss Blue Gum Road. Caterpillars for Sale. Write at night, while driving, even if you’re in bed, at dawn, or in the bath, be ready to catch a poem or a sentence when it comes.

12. Read poems. Be inspired by Emily Dickinson, ee cummings, James Joyce, Allen Ginsberg, Francisco Alarcon, Jane Hirshfield. Go to the library and take out Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce and see how he played with language. This will help free you. Sit on the floor of the library or a used bookstore and gather snippets from ten books.

13. We’re here to be happy. To play. To extend love. Translator Coleman Barks called the Persian poet Rumi “a heartmaster.” Read Rumi. We are not our bodies. Talk to your spirit, your inner guide. Listen to your soul. Ask your most holy, higher self, what it wants you to write. Take down your soul’s dictation.

14. Treasure yourself. Poet Robert Bly wrote, “You came into this world as a radiant package of cosmic wonders, as an unspeakably sublime bolt of primordial resonance, as a barely coalesced jumble of blinding beauty—and all your parents wanted was a good little girl or a good little boy.”

About Me

My passion is travelling and teaching. I have been travelling around the world having amazing experiences. In addition, I have been teaching at many levels: primary and secondary education in the UK and Spain, university level (undergraduate and graduate) in Spain, Brazil and New Zealand, and beyond formal education (hospitals, security units, adults and 3rd age). I have passion for journalism too. I've worked for TV3, Maori TV, Radio 6 Punt Camp, and other print and online media. At the moment I'm teaching English at ESO level (Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain) at SI Badalona high school, in Barcelona. I like sci-fi books, horror movies, Celtic and electronic music, and swimming. What about you?